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Learn English in Chicago?

My husband and I will be "babysitting" my teenaged nephew this summer (June/July 2012) for a month. He is from San Luis, Potosi Mexico and this will be his first time in Chicago. He has been studying English in school, but is still a beginner. His mom wants him to enroll in a class to take English lessons for the month he is here. Because he's only sixteen I don't think he'll be able totake any courses at a local community college. Any ideas of a good english language program in Chicago for a teen for a month?

I am not certain about a "good English language program" in the formal education sense but have a couple of suggestions that might work for the short one month period.

Contact the Boys and Girls Club of Chicago. There your nephew can mingle with students his own age who speak English. He can play games or watch movies or perhaps get in a book club discussion. This may not help his "book learning" but would improve conversational skills.

Check http://www.lvillinois.org/NorthsidePrograms.asp
It looks like there are many centers in Chicago where you can get one-on-one volunteer help with learning English. Here the volunteer can help your nephew from the place where he is at in his English learning rather than him being in a class where he is either ahead or behind of the material being presented. Or they may refer you to programs more suitable to teens.

Also, check with your local public library. They probably know of other options in and around Chicago.

Good luck!

My wife did some research and wrote this response after we discussed your post. If you check my profile, you'll see that our residence is in Southern California. But Chicago caught my eye because that's where I was born and grew up. And I took Spanish in High School, but in the subsequent 60 plus years have forgotten most of what I learned. Too bad, because now I volunteer at a local school where about 70 percent of the kids come from Spanish speaking homes, and therefore are to a degree bilingual.

You of course will want to honor your Nephew's parents wishes if feasible, but my opinion is he will benefit by just being in an English speaking environment with you and others. And you can coach him. Maybe get his parents to agree to no Spanish language TV? We have a lot here in LA, and I suspect there's some in Chicago.

Thank you so much for your response. I didn't think about the Boys and Girls Club! I may still try to find a formal class for him, but I have been worried about him being bored by not having people his age around (I don't have any teenagers). Plus, I do want him to be able to get out and have fun with friends, but in a more controlled environment (I don't want to just let him loose in Chicago with friends that I don't know, especially when he doesn't know the language well. I know his mom wouldn't appreciate that).

And I definitely will look into your link about one-on-one tutoring. I think this could also be helpful.

Also, thank your wife for including her suggestions. As an elementary school teacher myself, I definitely will have my nephew practicing English in my home. I'll have him watch t.v. in English and I plan on having him help me cook dinner (recipes from a cookbook). Thanks!
Vanessa

As for Chicago Public Library your branch may be good but there are also great resources at the downtown location such as programs he might attend and language lab resources for learning languages (including English) not available elsewhere.

Other possible resources you might ask for suggestions: the Chicago consulates or Mexico and Spain (or other Spanish speaking countries) and the Cervantes Institute here in Chicago (yes it's for learning Spanish but they have cultural activities and your nephew might enjoy meeting American teenagers who are interested to learn Spanish).

A web search on ''ESL course chicago'' turns up tons of options. (ESL=english as a second language).

These little private schools very often have 2,4,6 + week courses for teenagers in the summer, full time or part time, often with outings on afternoons and weekends. I'm not specifically familiar with the ones in Chicago, though.